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Is the MAGA movement losing its momentum · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: And at the assignment desk today is independent journalist Jake
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  Speaker 1: LaHutt and author of Straight from the Hut, Adam Mockler,
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  Speaker 1: host of The Adam Mockler Show, independent journalist and founder
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  Speaker 1: of Ahmed Baba News, Ahmed Baba, and Jake Conley, economics
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  Speaker 1: reporter for Yahoo Finance and co-host of The 830. It's
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  Speaker 1: great to have all of all of you gentlemen with
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  Speaker 1: me here this afternoon. Jake, I'm going to start with you.
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  Speaker 1: Is the Trump show losing steam?
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  Speaker 2: So the one thing that is consistent, and you've been
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  Speaker 2: to a lot of Trump rallies, is Trump rally goers
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  Speaker 2: hate traffic. They do leave early, very consistently. That's been
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  Speaker 2: happening the whole time. Now, aside from that, we certainly
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  Speaker 2: see a lot of enthusiasm issues with the base. In
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  Speaker 2: terms of why upstate New York, I mean, Trump does
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  Speaker 2: have kind of his origin story starting to get into
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  Speaker 2: conservative politics in western and central New York. But what
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  Speaker 2: was weird was Syracuse is actually the city with the
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  Speaker 2: number one rate of childhood poverty worldwide. of any city
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  Speaker 2: in the country from over 100,000 people. And I'm an
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  Speaker 2: upstate New York native. And I've seen this way that
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  Speaker 2: Trump kind of uses upstate as sort of a basically
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  Speaker 2: a political prop to show this, you know, white grievance
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  Speaker 2: style contrast with New York City. And it's very odd
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  Speaker 2: that you sure we've seen him go to red states
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  Speaker 2: and other safe areas. But to go here, apparently at
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  Speaker 2: the insistence of Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor
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  Speaker 2: in New York, It's a really odd choice. Bruce Blakeman
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  Speaker 2: is not competitive. Maybe if he was in Long Island,
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  Speaker 2: it can help him bump his number up against Kathy Hochul.
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  Speaker 2: But I think the other telling line that we showed
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  Speaker 2: there was the 48 percent of you don't vote. And
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  Speaker 2: please pretend like my name is on the frickin ballot.
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  Speaker 2: It's that drop off that we see cycle after cycle
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  Speaker 2: and including in the general where people go in. Trump
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  Speaker 2: is literally on the ballot. They vote for him and
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  Speaker 2: they leave and they leave everyone else down ballot hanging.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Adam, what does it say to you that Bruce
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  Speaker 1: Blakeman wanted him there, but Bruce Blakeman is more than
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  Speaker 1: likely not going to be the governor.
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  Speaker 3: Of New York.
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  Speaker 1: But then there was local reporting that a whole lot
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  Speaker 1: of other local GOP leaders in the state of New York,
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  Speaker 1: they were they had other places to be, other things
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  Speaker 1: to do.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, when I saw that side by side of Donald
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  Speaker 4: Trump a decade ago compared to today, what struck me
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  Speaker 4: was just the degradation of our president, the degradation of
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  Speaker 4: his energy, his enthusiasm, his tone, and even his focus.
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  Speaker 4: He is not focused on anything. And that is why
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  Speaker 4: I think people want to distance themselves from him. He
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  Speaker 4: is focused on some things, but it's all of the
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  Speaker 4: wrong things right now. The Iran war is 220 plus
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  Speaker 4: days in when he said it would last two weeks.
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  Speaker 4: ICE has been a huge disappointment for the people that
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  Speaker 4: even wanted immigration enforcement after seeing killings happening in our street.
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  Speaker 4: And Republicans are trying to distance themselves from this awful
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  Speaker 4: policy of a degrading, weak president.
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  Speaker 1: So, Ahmed, I want to read some interesting polling that
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  Speaker 1: caught my eye this week. Pew Research Survey. Only 67%
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  Speaker 1: of Trump 2024 voters, so people who cast their vote
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  Speaker 1: for this president two years ago, approve of his job
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  Speaker 1: as president right now. 67% is still a major majority,
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  Speaker 1: but that is down from 95% back in February.
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  Speaker 5: It's really reflective of the times. I mean, you have 31%.
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  Speaker 5: The flip side of that disapproval is that 31% of
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  Speaker 5: 2024 Trump voters that are disenchanted, they disapprove. You have 30%.
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  Speaker 5: overall approval from the Pew Research Center here. And I
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  Speaker 5: think that this is indicative of what we've all seen,
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  Speaker 5: what we saw last night, Trump voters walking out of
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  Speaker 5: the rally because these rants hit different when he's in power.
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  Speaker 5: There's a reason why Donald Trump has never won a single,
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  Speaker 5: in spite of what he said, has never won a
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  Speaker 5: single election as an incumbent. 2018, he got totally shellacked,
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  Speaker 5: lost the majority. 2020, got destroyed. He cannot win when
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  Speaker 5: he's in power because he is then responsible for the
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  Speaker 5: problems Americans are facing unilaterally, raising prices with the tariffs
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  Speaker 5: and the Iran war. And now he's the embodiment of
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  Speaker 5: everything he promised his 2016 voters that he would take down.
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  Speaker 5: And that is why this 2016 to 2026 comparison is
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  Speaker 5: so key because he promised he would take Take down
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  Speaker 5: the political establishment. Now he is the political establishment that
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  Speaker 5: is governing for the elites while leaving the working class
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  Speaker 5: to languish. He promised to take down corruption and drain
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  Speaker 5: the swamp. And now he is a creature of the
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  Speaker 5: swamp and has expanded it, as we will talk later
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  Speaker 5: about the corruption and Kimberly Guilfoyle. He is the con
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  Speaker 5: is collapsing. What we are witnessing right now is the
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  Speaker 5: failure of a political movement. And people are heading for
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  Speaker 5: the exits because Donald Trump has been exposed for the
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  Speaker 5: absolute con and fraud that he is.
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  Speaker 1: Jake, I want your thoughts on the role. I mean, like,
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  Speaker 1: it's the economy, stupid, sort of it all here. Because
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  Speaker 1: as other Jake mentioned, I've.
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  Speaker 2: Got two Jakes here at the table.
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  Speaker 3: We're going to do this a lot.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to do my best to keep it straight.
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  Speaker 1: But you're talking about sort of the white grievance politics
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  Speaker 1: and the choice of a place like Syracuse. And this
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  Speaker 1: many years later— If that stuff really still plays when
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  Speaker 1: down the street gas is four and a half dollars
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  Speaker 1: a gallon, basically. And, you know, voters, I think, are
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  Speaker 1: struggling to hear like a clear message from not just
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  Speaker 1: the president, but the rest of the party. And that
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  Speaker 1: sort of ticket down ballot from him of what their
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  Speaker 1: real solution is to all of that. President Trump announced
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  Speaker 1: just yesterday, too, then this agreement with President Putin of
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  Speaker 1: Russia to import diesel fuel as part of a solution here.
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  Speaker 1: But I don't think to your average person, it sounds
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  Speaker 1: great that you're going to our enemy country. or what's
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  Speaker 1: supposed to be our enemy. I don't know if the
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  Speaker 1: president sometimes views him as our enemy to get us out.
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  Speaker 2: Of this situation.
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  Speaker 3: When you look at Syracuse specifically, go back to 2016.
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  Speaker 3: What was the story in Syracuse? It was deindustrialization. They
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  Speaker 3: were losing jobs. Jobs were going overseas. Factories were closing.
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  Speaker 3: Between 2000 and 2016, that area lost 40 percent of
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  Speaker 3: its manufacturing jobs. That is money going out of the
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  Speaker 3: American pocket. President Trump got on stage in 16 and said, look,
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  Speaker 3: I am going to fix this. I'm going to bring
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  Speaker 3: those jobs back. I'm going to reindustrialize that area, that state,
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  Speaker 3: this country. There's been 10 years in between. He comes
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  Speaker 3: back to the same convention center. And as you point out,
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  Speaker 3: that gas station has prices at or near all-time highs
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  Speaker 3: for gasoline in this country. Diesel is at an all-time high.
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  Speaker 3: People go to the store and they say, everything is
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  Speaker 3: just so more expensive. We are five years into inflation
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  Speaker 3: over Target. Prices are getting hotter and hotter and hotter.
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  Speaker 3: That puts him in a tough spot because he's coming
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  Speaker 3: back to ask voters to judge his record. And if
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  Speaker 3: the numbers haven't gotten better and if they've gotten worse,
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  Speaker 3: that's a very tough spot to be in. What are we,
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  Speaker 3: 30-ish days out from the midterms?
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  Speaker 1: Could this diesel deal actually be any.
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  Speaker 3: Good for us? So the amount they're talking about would
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  Speaker 3: be good for maybe nine to 10 days of supply.
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  Speaker 3: So you might see some initial relief. You may right away.
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  Speaker 3: This is like the export ban we've talked about for Washington.
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  Speaker 3: You might see some short term relief. But over the
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  Speaker 3: long term, once that runs out, you are left back
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  Speaker 3: exactly where you were. Refiners around the world are pumping
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  Speaker 3: as much diesel as they can. You can't squeeze that
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  Speaker 3: system harder. And so just getting a little more supply
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  Speaker 3: might help for a couple of weeks, but it's not
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  Speaker 3: going to do anything for the longer term picture. And
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  Speaker 3: if we look at what's happening in Iran, the threats
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  Speaker 3: to start strikes again, the insistence of the IRGC that
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  Speaker 3: they're not backing down, that war is not ending anytime soon.
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  Speaker 3: And so how much good is two weeks of room
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  Speaker 3: going to do?
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  Speaker 6: And what does it tell us.
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  Speaker 1: Actually, Ahmed, that so much of this seems, when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to the future of the war in Iran, seems
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  Speaker 1: to just be sort of like politically timed around these midterms?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think on the flip side of that,
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  Speaker 5: Iran is doing a lot of this because they were
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  Speaker 5: aware also that the midterms were coming.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and they do not have any such like electoral
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  Speaker 1: process that they need to respond to.
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  Speaker 5: Exactly. I think right now we're seeing the asymmetry in
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  Speaker 5: the incentive structures of the two governments where you have Iran,
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  Speaker 5: he could take a lot more pain. And you have Trump,
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  Speaker 5: who is being so frantic right now. There's a reason
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  Speaker 5: why he's freaking out and threatening to annihilate Iran every
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  Speaker 5: other week. It's because he knows that he's stuck in
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  Speaker 5: this quagmire. And like you outlined there, all of these
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  Speaker 5: measures are just going to be band-aids when it comes
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  Speaker 5: to the diesel prices, when it comes to the overall
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  Speaker 5: exports that are coming out of the Gulf. So he
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  Speaker 5: can act like he's making these moves to try to
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  Speaker 5: just have propaganda wins, but I think the American people
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  Speaker 5: can see right through it. I drive by gas stations
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  Speaker 5: every day. The prices are still steady. You can announce
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  Speaker 5: these and get your little wins in the right-wing media,
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  Speaker 5: but I think what we're seeing is that it's not
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  Speaker 5: hitting the way It used to. You can't gaslight Americans
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  Speaker 5: out of their lived experience.
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  Speaker 1: I'm curious, Jake, you know, you're starting to see Republicans
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  Speaker 1: get a little bit more comfortable trying to create some
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  Speaker 1: daylight here. Like you have Mike Rogers, who's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: filming himself in the grocery store and saying the Iran
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  Speaker 1: war needs to come to an end.
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  Speaker 2: Drinking all that, watching the Red Wings.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. At the same time, he can't really run
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  Speaker 1: away from the president. You see this in Georgia, too,
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  Speaker 1: with Rick Jackson running for governor there, who's like at
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  Speaker 1: times touting his relationship with Kemp over Trump. And I
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  Speaker 1: just wonder with so few days left, with three weeks
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  Speaker 1: to go, if it's possible to separate yourself from President
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  Speaker 1: Trump without alienating the base of voters that are still
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  Speaker 1: loyal to him.
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  Speaker 2: I think that was possible. And the time when that
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  Speaker 2: was possible was basically last summer at the height of
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  Speaker 2: the Epstein files. I am writing a profile right now
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  Speaker 2: on one of these Republican members who voted for that
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  Speaker 2: discharge petition yesterday. And having covered this cohort, I think
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  Speaker 2: what's really interesting is that they still do back Trump
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  Speaker 2: on a lot of the not very popular things. They
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  Speaker 2: still mostly play for the home team, but they bought
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  Speaker 2: some credibility when it came to standing out on the
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  Speaker 2: Epstein files and saying like, hey, we're going to call
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  Speaker 2: your bluff on this. We need these out now. In
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  Speaker 2: terms of this far out to the election, no, I
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  Speaker 2: don't think so. But it is definitely a sign that
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  Speaker 2: like the internals that I've heard about are so bad,
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  Speaker 2: even in Trump plus 15, Trump plus 20 districts that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, For people who thought they might have been
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  Speaker 2: a little safe, it's worth maybe that little bit of
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  Speaker 2: shave down of like, hey, if I'm going to risk
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  Speaker 2: the true social post, maybe now is the time to
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  Speaker 2: get anything in return for it. But that calculus is
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  Speaker 2: just all out of whack.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think we'll see more of that in the
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  Speaker 1: next week or two?
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  Speaker 2: I think we're probably going to see more of the
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  Speaker 2: basic cost of living. Like, I feel your pain.
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  Speaker 3: I'm at the pump.
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  Speaker 2: But then we also have guys like Jackson who are
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  Speaker 2: talking about going to the gas store. And like we
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  Speaker 2: can tell like the the muscle memory is not here
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  Speaker 2: it's been a minute maybe more than that hey it's
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  Speaker 2: rachel i am so glad to see you at the
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  Speaker 2: end of that clip because this is where i get
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: to tell you about a new.
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